Mar 2 2011
The Bio-Medical Brainiacs, a team of 10 fifth-graders from the Quiet Waters Elementary School, have developed a prototype football helmet equipped with more safety precautions. This innovative helmet can measure the impact caused to the brain.
The cooling catheters within the helmet will help you explore the possibility of an injury and to send relevant data about the injury to a hand-held scanner. This device could help the team coaches to monitor the status of the players in the field.
The Brainiacs team is preparing for the FIRST Lego League, a robotics program that aims to encourage students from ages 9 to 16. Students of Brainiacs will be competing with other teams for an innovation prize of $20,000.
The only team from South Florida to make it to the contest's top 12 is Team Brainiacs. The teams must earn the most online votes from the public by March 4 to secure the award.
Some students believe that their helmet can help lessen future injuries for players of Super Bowl. Mary Ellen Pinzon, the team's teacher and sponsor, stated that the team has been conducting extensive research on helmets since the beginning of the school year.